Q: If we don’t agree on this TA what is the potential on how long the Company can draw out this already long process? From what I understand or thought, the Hawaiian merger cannot be completed unless our contract negotiations are finished.
If the TA is not ratified, AFA will survey the members to find out exactly what caused the failed TA. Then the Negotiating Committee will compose new proposals based on that information to head back to bargaining. Once that is done, the National Mediation Board will establish mediation dates (we are still in mediation). That may be several months before we are back at the table. There is no telling how long, or if, it will take to reach a “TA2”.
The status of our TA has no impact on the merger transaction with Hawaiian. The corporate transaction can happen absent a new Flight Attendant contract. The other labor groups can successfully bargain JCBAs and combine operations. The Flight Attendant groups cannot be combined until we negotiate a Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (JCBA). If this TA is ratified and the merger goes through, we will be back in negotiations for the JCBA, and further improvements, shortly.